SALINAS SWEEP

SAN JOSE — One of Jose Celaya's greatest assets has always been his lightning-fast hands. His opponent Thursday night at the American Metal & Iron Fight Night at the Tank never saw the punch that ended his night.

Celaya stuck Steve Walker with a stiff left hand, then followed up with a stealth, pulverizing right that sent the Hannibal, Mo., junior welterweight down for the count just 110 seconds into the opening round of the main event in front of a crowd of 3,599 at HP Pavilion.

The victory boosted Celaya — once the No. 1-ranked welterweight in the world, according to once sanctioning body — to a 30-3 record. It was his 16th career knockout.

"I've been up in Big Bear, training with Shane Mosley, and he's the fighter who does that the best: He hides that right hand behind his shoulder a little bit, so his opponent doesn't see it coming," Celaya said. "He never saw it coming."

The 31-year-old Walker, a late replacement as Celaya's opponent, arrived with a record of 21-15, including 11 knockouts, but had won five of his last seven bouts.

Celaya, 25, is still trying to rebuild a career that got derailed by two knockouts within a 10-month period back in 2004. While Thursday's win won't make any national headlines, it clearly galvanized for former National Junior PAL amateur champ.

Not that he didn't see it coming.

"I'm always watching Shane, always learning from him," Celaya said of Mosley, the multi-time world champion who once served as a co-manager for the Salinas boxer. "I actually had a dream that this is the way the fight was going to end: I was going to throw two jabs, hide the right hand, then let it go."

In the co-feature, Jesus "Chuy" Rodriguez beat the most-dangerous opponent of his career on the scorecards after a ring doctor determined that an injury over Rodriguez's left eye, caused by an accidental head-butt, prevented him from continuing.

The 27-year-old junior welterweight from Salinas was ahead on all three scorecards — 40-37, 40-36 and 39-37 — when both fighters recoiled from a collision of heads.

"He came toward me, I was in the middle of an exchange, and our heads just clashed together. It was unintentional, but that's boxing," said Rodriguez, whose next fight, Oct. 19 against Patrick Lopez (11-1, 9 KOs) in Sacramento, will be televised on ShoBox: The New Generation.

"And I knew I had the guy. It was just a matter of time before I broke him down," Rodriguez added. "I was already pushing him back, and I could tell he was a little bit surprised when we got into a couple of exchanges and I stood there and traded with him. I wanted him to understand I wasn't any pushover, and he felt it. That's when he started retreating."

Eloy Perez, Rodriguez's stablemate at Garcia Boxing, peppered Odilon Rivera (5-13-3) with rapid-fire jabs, and made the East Los Angeles fighter pay whenever he missed — which was often — in a six-round super featherweight bout on the undercard.

The 20-year-old Perez improved his record to 9-0-2, winning every round on all three scorecards and emerging from the fight with his face unmarked, except for a cut on his left eyelid caused by a flying elbow.

"We didn't go to the body tonight because his jab was working so well," said Max Garcia, who trains both Perez and Rodriguez for Garcia Boxing. "We also avoided the body with this guy, because he was coming in with his head first, but Eloy showed some real good defense tonight, and did a good job of burying his shots."

Perez, coming off a peronally disappointing six-round draw with Carlos Vinan on Aug. 10 in Sacramento, was all smiles after the victory.

"I had a great training camp. I was in great shape, and I had no distractions at all," said Perez, who fought despite an ankle sprain last month in Sacramento. "I hit him pretty easily in that first round, but I also hit him pretty hard and he didn't just fall over, so I knew he had come to fight.

"In my heart, I knew I was better than I had showed in that Sacramento fight," he said. "I really wanted to come back strong tonight and prove to (the media) and the fans that I'm the real deal."

In other bouts, Jesus Berrelleza improved to 2-0 in the opener with technical knockout of Oakland's Fernando Barajas (1-1) and Joseph "Smokin'" Jones won a majority decision over Rudolf Louis (2-2).